Antenna construction fob aebial vessels



A. W. SCHRAMM.

ANTENNA CONSTRUCTION FOR AERIA'L VESSELS. APPLLCATION FILED APR. 9,1918. T 1,307,155. Patented June 17, 1919.

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APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, my.

Patented J 11116 17, 1919.

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rl'lJs 162 A. W.-SCHRAMM. ANTENNA CONSTRUCTION FOR AIERIA'L VE'SSELS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 9. 191B.

Pnronrvd June 17, 1919.

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Ewen/2 0)",- qya yomfsCAm @Svfirwe a M QM A. W-. SCHRAMM.

ANTENNA CONSTRUCTION FOR AERIAL VESSELS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, 1918.

Patented June 17, 1919.

5 SHEETSeSHEET 4- A. W. SCHRAIVIIVI.

ANTENNA CONSTRUCTION FOR AERIAL VESSELS.

' APPLICATION FILED APR-9| I9l8.

' Patented June .17, I919.

5 SHEETSSHEET 5- specification.

ADOLPH W. SC, 01E RIVERTON, NEW JERSEY.

ANTENNA CONSTRUCTION FOR AERIAL Specification of Letters Patent.Patented June 17, 1919,

Application filed April 9, 1918. Serial No. 227,529.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ADoLPH W. SormAMM, acitizen of the United States, residing in Riverton, New Jersey, haveinvented'certain Improvements in Antenna Construction for AerialVessels, of which the following is a The wireless telegraph apparatusfor use on the various forms of aircraft usually includes a device forpaying out and reeling in a long wire or cable constituting an antennaand, as customarily constructed, this has I been found to be seriouslydefective owing to the frequent breakage of the wire due to the suddenpull exerted upon it by its weight and the weight on its free end whenall of said wire has been paid out. While braking devices have beenemployed for enabling the operator to' regulate the speed at which thewire was delivered from the reel on which it was wound, these at bestwere uncertain in operation and unsatisfactory because of the attentionthey required.

One object of my invention therefore, is to provide a novel combinationof apparatus including a reel particularly designed for the reception ofthe antenna wire of a wireless telegraph outfit such as is carried by anaeroplane for example, which shall possess means for automaticallyregulating the.

speed at which the weighted wire is delivered after having beenreleased, so that the shock or tension exerted upon the wire by itsweight and by the weight on its free end after it has been fully paid"out while the aeroplane is flying shall be so reduced as to beinsuflicient to cause breakage-of said wire even though this possessesbut relatively low tensile strength, as is required.

These ob]ects and other advantageous ends Lattain as hereinafter setforth, ref erence being had to'the accompanying drawings, in whichFigure 1 is a front elevatlon of a reel constructed according to myinvention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 22, Fig. 1;

Figs. 3 and 4 are vertical sections on'the lines 33 and 44 Fig. 2, thespool-being omitted;

' Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section showing the operating handle in itstwo extreme positions.

Fig. 6 is an elevation, to some extentoiagrammatic, showing the partsconstituting my invention; and

Fig. 7 is an elevation of a portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 6,illustrating it on an enlarged scale.

In the above drawings, 1 represents a flat metal plate having agenerally circular form and provided with a suitable number ofprojecting lugs 2 formed with holes for the reception of bolts or screwswhereby the device may be fixed to a supporting structure, such as theaeroplane 52, Figs. 6 and'7.

'Riveted or otherwise rigidly and permanently secured to this plate 1 isa fiat drum 3 preferably made of relativelythin, strong, pressed metalhaving in its flat face a number of struck up teeth 4 constituting aratchet. fixed in the plate 1 is a relatively heavy, substantial stud01' short spindle 5 constituting a journal on which is rotatablymounteda sleeve or collar 6, projecting from and centrally mounted in asecond metal plate 7 Centrally mounted and rigidly which with it is heldon said journal 5 by a I flat washer 8 retained on the outer end of thespindle by a screw 9.

The plate 7 which extends over and closes the open face of the drum 3,has mounted upon its inner-face a pair of fiat segmental weights 10movably connected to said plate by pivots 11 and normally drawn towardthe central sleeve 6 by coil springs 12, each of which extends between apin 13 projecting inwardly from the face of the plate 7 and an eye 14 ontheweight. Each of the latter has set in its outer and preferablycircularly curved edge a shoe 15 of leather or other suitable-materialhaving a highcoeilicient of friction and designed to coaet with theinner cylindrical surface of the drum 3 when the weight has swungoutwardly to a predetermined extent against the action of the spring 12.I

The plate 7 also carries a dog in the shape 1 sleeve 17 so as to permitrotation of the plate 7 in one direction, but it may be forcibly drawnout against the action of this spring by means of a lifting deviceprovided by a rotatable disk 19 having an operating arm 20 and providedwith a raising cam 21 placed on its edge in such a position as to extendunder a collar 22 pinned to the outer end of said plunger 16 so as toconstitute its second or outer head. The arrangement of these parts issuch that when the operating arm- 20 occupies the position shown indotted lines in Fig. 1, the spring 18 holds the plunger in engagementwith the ratchet teeth 4, while the act of moving said arm into theposition shown in full lines Fig. 1, turns the disk 19 sufficiently tocause its edge cam 21 to so act on the outer head 22 of the plunger 16as to move it outwardly, free of the ratchet teeth 4. The disk 19 ispivotally held to the plate 7 by a rivet 24, between whose head and saiddisk is confined a spring washer 25 which exerts suflicient friction onthe latter to retain it in any given position.

The spool 26 for the antenna wire consists of two annular flanged piecesof sheet material 27 having parallel, radially extending vwebs 28riveted, spot welded, or otherwise permanently connected to form areceptacle for said wire and including any desired number of inwardlyprojecting portions 29 formed with side notches for the reception of thebodies of a similar number of rivets or other headed members 30 whichproject from the outer face of the plate 7 ;--the arrangement being suchthat the web por tions 28 of the spool may be laid parallel and incontact with the outer face of said plate 7 concentrically with thespindle 5 and thereafter given a small rotary movement, causing the siderecesses of the projections 29 to receive the rivets 30 whose heads thenact to hold the spool to said plate against sidewise removal. In orderto removably retain said spool in this position I mount a spring-pressedlocking plunger 32 in a sleeve or bushing 32 mounted in the plate 7 insuch positlon that when the lugs or projections 29 engage the headedmembers 30 as shown in Fig. 1, said plunger is free to be automaticallyprojected behind one of said extensions and is thereby causedto retainthe spool attached to the plate 7 with no possibility of becomingaccidentally separated therefrom.

F or turning the plate 7 with the spool on the spindle 5, I provide ahandle 36 pivoted to said plate at 37 so that it may move in a planeatright angles to the plate and to one side of the center line thereof.The stem of this handle is preferably provided with a right angleextension 39 formed by bending it upon itself so that when it is turnedon its pivot 37 into an inactive position practically within thecylindrical recess provided by the spool 26, this projection will extendoutwardly where it may be easily struck by the hand of the operator whenit is desired to quickly move the main handle from its folded to itsextended position. This secondary handle or projection 39 is so placedas to strike the side of the spool and limit the outward swing of thehandle stem. A flat spring 40, fixed at one end to the plate 7, extendsover a knife edge or tapered pin 41 fixed to the pivot 37 in suchposition that it tends to move the handle from a mid or neutral positioninto either of its extreme positions shown in Fig. 5.

Under conditions of use a length of wire 50 constituting an antenna hasone end permanently fixed to the spool 26 in any desired manner and iswound within the cavity thereof with a suitable weight 51 attached toits outer end. The filled spool may be attached to the plate 7 byplacing it over the same with its inward extensions 29 adjacent theheaded members 30 and thereafter giving it a slight turning motionsuflicient to bring the walls of the side recesses of its extensions 29into engagement with the bodies of said members, whereupon the springplunger 32 automatically locks it in place.

Normally the plate 7 With its attached spool and regulating weights isheld from turning on the spindle'5 by the dog 16 which engages the teeth4 of thefixed drum and when it is desired to pay out the antenna wire,the disk 19 is turned from the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1to that shown in full lines so that its cam 21 raises the plunger 16 outof the path of the ratchet teeth 4 and retains it in this raisedposition. Under the action of the weight 51 on the end of the wire 50,this is now drawn ofi' of the spool which, with the plate 7 and weights.

that the friction between the drum and shoes tends to swing said weightsoutwardly and therefore aids the centrifugal force in applying a brakingforce to the rotating plate 7 and its attached spool.

By reason of the construction described and shown, this braking force isgradually applied so that the rate of delivery of the weighted wire islimited to such a point that when all of said wire has been finally paidout, there is no such sudden tensile stress due to the inertia of saidWire and weight as would cause the wire to break, even though it be madeof comparatively weak material in order to prevent injury to theaeroplane 52 in ease of its becoming accidentally entangled with somefixed structure.

'When it is desired to draw inthe wire, the handle may be moved from itsfolded position shown in Fig. 5 by the operator striking its projectingportion 39in a line parallel with the plane of the plate 7, as a resultof which the handle movesfrom the position shown in full linesin Fig. 5to that shown in dotted lines. Its main portion may now be grasped bythe operator and the plate 7, with the spool, turned to wind up theantenna wire.

- plate 1 into the that as the spool isturned said lunger Under ordinaryconditions the arm 20 of the disk 19 is so turned as to permit theplunger or dog 16'moving toward the fixed path'of the ratchet teeth, so

rid s successively over .said teeth. 11 case thehandle should bereleased at anytime the lunger is at once engaged by one of the rate etteeth as the spool tends to turn un- '.der the action of the weightedwire so that u'liwindingof the latter is prevented. I

With the arrangement of parts shown, a spool and its wire may with theutmost ease be removed from the plate 7 and replaced by another-spoolwith its associated antenna, since for this purpose it is merelynecessailiiy to depress the locking plungeror pin su ciently to rmitsuch slight turning of the spool as w11l allow of the inward projections29 moving free of the headed members 30,

whereupon sald spool may be moved later-v ally away from said plate.

I claim: I 1. The combination of an aerial vessel; a

reel mounted thereon; a flexible member having one end connected to thereel; a

weight on the otherend of said member; and means for automaticallylimitingthe speed] of delivery of the flexible member from the reeltovan amount insuflicient to cause break moving ina generally horizontaldirection;

and means for automaticall preventing the force of inertia of the memberexceeding its breaking strength at the time it has all been paid out. ea

3. The combination of an aerial vessel;

a reel mounted thereon; a flexible weighted. member having one endconnected to the reel and free to assume a curved outline when deliveredtherefrom while the vessel is being moved in a generally horizontaldirec-v tion; and a centrifugal braking device set toautomatically'limit the speed of delivery of the member to an amountwhich will prevent the force of its inertia exceeding its breakingstrength at the time it has all been paid'out from the reel.

4. The combination-in an aerial vessel including a member havinga seriesof ratchet teeth; a structure including a spool rotatably mountedon'said member; a flexible weighted member connected to said spool atone end and free to assume a curved outline when delivered therefromwhile the vessel is moving in agenerally horizontal direction; means forautomatically preventing the force of inertia of the member exceedingits breaking strength when it has all been paid out from. the spool; adog mounted on the the ratchet teeth; and means also carried byrotatable structure in position to coact with the rotatable structurefor controlling the operation of the dog.

In witness whereof I aflix my signature. 1 ADOLPH W SCHRAMM.

